Machines called "merchandisers" or "merchandise games" display multiple items that may be won by a person playing a game of skill or chance. There are several notable such games in the prior art:
Machines sold under the registered trademark "LAX" include a prize dispensing apparatus that responds to the deposit of money by loading prizes onto a rotating playing surface. The player uses an arm-like mechanism to attempt to sweep a selected prize into a delivery chute. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,525, by Balles et al., teaches apparatus for a game of skill in which an arm makes a single sweep across a rotary table loaded with prizes. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,585, by Shoemaker teaches an amusement apparatus comprising two conveyor belts moving in opposing directions and a prize-sweeping arm that moves transverse to the two belts. Shoemaker's game includes a reloading mechanism that adds a new prize to the playing surface each time a prize is swept into the delivery chute. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,432, wherein Breitenstein et al disclose a vending machine with a plurality of vending stations (A multi-station article dispensing apparatus, hereinafter, is one in which each vending "station" offers a user a different choice, and comprises article storage and display apparatus. Other elements of the overall article dispensing apparatus, such as coin acceptance mechanism, a control means, an electromechanical actuator, a heating or cooling subsystem, etc., may be shared among a plurality of stations). Each of Breitenstein et al's stations is supplied by a single rotating magazine. Breitenstein et al's machine has a delivery mechanism using a single electric motor and a plurality of electro-mechanical actuators, one for each vending station. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,739, wherein Levasseur teaches a multi-station beverage can vending machine driven by a single selectively reversible motor. Levasseur provides multiple can magazines at each station (The magazines, or product stacks, are juxtaposed one behind the other). This design replaces complex mechanical and electro-mechanical mechanisms with a sophisticated electronic control system to track the position of a chain-driven trip element and to reverse the motor immediately after the trip element passes a selected station, thus causing the trip element to deliver the selected product. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,684,143, wherein Obodzinski discloses a manual coin acceptance mechanism in which two disks on a single horizontal axle are joined by a plurality of pins parallel to that axle. The pins define a plurality of pockets that accept coins, but that are not subject to jamming by foreign articles inserted into the coin slot. Obodzinski further discloses a product-dispensing cradle wheel that has a plurality of cylindrical article-receiving pockets parallel to the axis of rotation of the wheel and that is gravity fed from a hopper. The teaching of Obodzinski is herein incorporated by reference. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,509, wherein Girardi describes a gravity-fed cradle wheel with a bell-crank clamp that holds an item in a cradle until the wheel rotates 180.degree. to deliver the item. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,058, wherein Carminati provides a grooved drum with a circumferential cover, or retainer, that feeds bicycle spokes into a guide device. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,168, wherein Hollrock et al teach the use of a pocketed wheel dispenser in which fillers are used to change the depth of pockets and thereby to vary the number of articles that fit within a pocket.
The prior art of electro-mechanical article dispensing is replete with designs minimizing the number of motors and electromechanical actuators required. This is done in the interest of reducing cost and of increasing reliability. Examples of such teaching is offered by:
It is common practice in the vending machine art to design a machine to operate only with products that fall into a narrow range of sizes, although some machines are adaptable to a wider range of product size than others. Levasseur's teaching in U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,739, for example, includes a dispensing mechanism operable only with cylindrical products of a standardized length and diameter--i.e., the conventional 12 oz. beverage can. Breitenstein et al's teaching in U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,432, on the other hand, provides a plurality of vending stations, each of which is operable for a small range of product sizes--e.g., candy bars. Rubbenark, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,395, discloses a vending machine that uses magazines of two widths and a single height. Rubbenark's narrower magazine is substantially one half the width of his wider magazine.
Other dispensing mechanisms that use pinned wheels or cradle wheels are known in the art and include:
Merchandise games commonly offer a variety of prizes of differing perceived value and of differing sizes. The variation in prize value is inherent in the success of many such games. These games readily dispense low value prizes to induce a player, who is playing for a high value prize, to continue his play. Thus, it is desirable that an article dispenser used in a merchandise game incorporate a plurality of display and dispensing stations capable of dispensing prizes of a variety of sizes and shapes.
Players of coin-operated games demand variety and novelty. In many such games (e.g., the well-known pin-ball machine) the manufacturer is able to provide a high degree of player-perceived novelty by minor reconfigurations (e.g., changing the number and location of holes for the ball) and by alterations in the labelling and graphics associated with the game. In this case the manufacturer can realize substantial operating economies by using standardized parts and subassemblies for a wide variety of games. Thus, it is desirable that an article dispenser subsystem for a merchandise game be usable with a wide variety of such games so that a minimum cost and effort is needed to reconfigure the dispenser for each new game.